July 28, 2026

Three-quarters of marketers estimate invalid traffic eats more than 5% of their monthly digital budget, according to a new survey from ad fraud firm Lunio. Beyond wasted media spend, respondents flagged bot-generated leads corrupting CRM data and wasting sales teams' time. Elsewhere in this week's chart roundup, Publicis reported €3.77 billion in Q2 2026 net revenue, with organic growth in every region except Middle East & Africa, where war cut revenue by 8.3%. Instagram Reels ads reached over one-third of impressions in Q2, closing in on Stories at 39%. DoubleVerify found Latin American viewers most receptive to shoppable ads in streaming, with 56% likely to buy compared with 38% in EMEA and North America. Paramount shares fell 10% after a US judge temporarily blocked its $110 billion Warner Bros Discovery deal.

A major beverage company is running an independent audit of its digital media campaigns, including CTV and online video, that ran during the World Cup. Blockboard, one of the vendors under review, says it welcomes the scrutiny. "Marketers want the receipts, and they haven't been given the receipts," said Matt Wasserlauf, CEO at Blockboard, who says demand-side platforms have cited legal risk and personal data concerns to withhold log files. Wasserlauf says that data can be stripped of personal information without blocking access, and that a couple of agencies have already audited major DSPs including The Trade Desk. He says another DSP declined to hand over log files an auditor demanded, a case he learned about at the Cannes Lions Festival. Blockboard says it delivers a 90% improvement over major DSPs on outcomes, citing store traffic for clients such as Sunglass Hut and lead generation for clients such as Dexcom.

Cyd Falkson, svp of strategic accounts at MediaSense, said agency holding companies are bundling free or discounted AI tools with principal media commitments to drive adoption of technology they have struggled to price and sell on their own. One consultant, speaking anonymously, described a holding company offering a marketer free AI tokenization in exchange for signing on to principal buying and a data service package. Omnicom's third-party service costs, which the company says include principal buying on clients' behalf, rose to almost $2.9 billion in the first half of 2026, up from $1.7 billion a year earlier. ID Comms CEO Tom Denford said the pattern reflects a systemic shift in agency economics.

Seven New York area teams, the Yankees, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils, Islanders and Sabres, will stream through a single direct-to-consumer service starting with the 2026-2027 NBA and NHL seasons. DAZN signed a deal to become the exclusive DTC home of YES Network and MSG Networks, giving subscribers access to 24/7 feeds of MSG, MSG Sportsnet and YES Network alongside on-demand highlights and original programming. Pay TV subscribers who already receive MSG or YES as part of their bundle get the content through DAZN at no extra cost. The Gotham Sports App, the prior streaming home for both networks, keeps serving current users uninterrupted until DAZN completes the migration during the 2026-2027 season. DAZN, which already reaches roughly 200 countries, has built its US presence on combat sports and soccer competitions like the UEFA Champions League. This deal marks its first entry into local NBA and NHL team rights.

James Weinberg, Executive Director at WPP Media, says he is bringing the embedded model pioneered at T&P to his new role at WPP. Under that model, media and creative teams sit directly inside client offices, working alongside the client's own marketing staff. Weinberg says the change means "it's feeling less like a supplier arrangement, and being more of an extension of their own marketing team." He is bringing that client-first philosophy to WPP as agencies take a more consultative role, helping clients navigate technology, data regulation and measurement complexity. Within T&P, Weinberg also restructured video responsibilities so the AV team owns audience strategy and budget setting for CTV and linear TV, directing programmatic and digital teams on how to allocate spend. WPP is separately testing a large-scale automation project using WPP Open to identify which TV spots drive unique reach.

HBO Max has launched HBO Max Shorts, a vertical scrollable feed of trailers, clips and bonus content from its library, alongside an experimental conversational search tool called Ask HBO Max. Shorts is available first to select iOS users in the US, accessed via a new Shorts icon in the bottom navigation, with content customized to each viewer's watch history. An in-house AI tool uses machine learning and scene-level metadata to scan thousands of hours of titles and suggest clips, which HBO Max editors then select and format for vertical playback. Ask HBO Max uses natural language understanding to interpret queries such as 'in the mood for a comedy,' and is currently available to select adult subscribers in the US on Android. Both features are set to expand to more devices and markets over time.